I wish to thank the editors of Impartial and IOL for providing me the platform to share this significant message. As Chairman of Impartial Media and IOL, I consider this editorial comes at a crucial time, with media freedom and South Africa’s democracy below severe risk.
Media serves because the cornerstone of any democracy. It holds energy accountable and amplifies numerous voices. With out it, we threat permitting unchecked corruption and mismanagement to form our future. South Africa has the potential to be a worldwide success story, however provided that we safeguard media freedom and create an surroundings that helps transparency and accountability.
The Survé Household and Sekunjalo have invested roughly R1.4 billion in South African media companies, spanning newspapers, radio, on-line platforms, magazines, and digital advertising and marketing. These investments have offered jobs for over a thousand folks. Regardless of the tough panorama confronted by print media, we stay dedicated to making sure a platform for numerous, unbiased narratives that problem the established order.
Our media has fearlessly uncovered main scandals: PPE corruption, the looting of SOEs, the Phala Phala scandal, and rampant mismanagement at each stage of presidency. We have additionally shone a light-weight on the complicity of the personal sector. Via these efforts, we’ve halted the wholesale looting of state assets and helped get better billions. In stark distinction, many within the media have stayed silent or, worse, protected sure political factions and enterprise elites by skewing their reporting. Their selective silence speaks volumes.
In standing for media freedom and variety of thought, the Survé Household and Sekunjalo have confronted immense backlash. Highly effective oligarchs, with wealth rooted in apartheid-era looting, have joined forces with politicians and enterprise elites to tarnish our fame. For over 25 years, we’ve got operated with the best integrity, but a coordinated media and social media smear marketing campaign—much like the ways utilized by Bell Pottinger—has focused us. This relentless effort, spanning greater than 5,000 defamatory articles, goals to isolate us by damaging our standing with prospects, suppliers, and potential expertise.
These assaults are primarily based on lies. The media has falsely labelled us as corrupt, regardless of no proof. They manipulate headlines, pictures, and cartoons to create a story of wrongdoing, all whereas ignoring our long-standing dedication to anti-corruption and good governance. Politicians, too, have exploited commissions just like the Mpati Fee, which, regardless of providing no stable findings, continues for use towards us in public discourse and by banks as an excuse to shut our accounts.
Even with none proof of corruption or wrongdoing, banks have cited “reputational threat” to close our accounts, whereas they proceed to serve entities and people discovered responsible of significant offences. We now have been unbanked for reputational causes alone, forcing us to function on a cash-only foundation. Regardless of this, we pay over R700 million to suppliers and greater than R200 million in salaries each month, with none entry to credit score services or banking providers.
This isn’t simply an assault on our enterprise—it’s financial sabotage. There’s a coordinated effort to disclaim us the flexibility to function by chopping off our entry to credit score, concentrating on our companions, and spreading disinformation about our group. But, within the face of those challenges, we stay debt-free with South African banks and dedicated to our nation’s financial transformation and development.
We now have at all times supported the judiciary, however current experiences have raised considerations about equity. In a case involving racial discrimination, we have been assigned 5 white judges—an uncommon and deeply regarding resolution. We concern the affect of media and political elites is now seeping into our justice system.
Our dedication to media freedom, financial transformation, and constitutional integrity stays unwavering. Nonetheless, this battle is larger than us. I urge South Africans to face with us in defending these values. Help Impartial Media and IOL by subscribing to our platforms. Collectively, we will resist those that search to regulate our minds and our future.
Our liberation got here at an incredible price. We can not enable highly effective pursuits to strip us of the freedoms so many fought for. Be part of us in defending our democracy, our freedom, and our future.
* Dr Iqbal Survé is the Government Chairman of Impartial Media and IOL.
** The views expressed don’t essentially replicate the views of IOL or Impartial Media.
